Nicolas Cage Confirmed for The Expendables 3

Stallone personally assures fans that they've signed Face/Off star, are still trying for Harrison Ford, Wesley Snipes and Mickey Rourke.

The Expendables 3 is about to get a little more manic… alright, a lot more manic: Sylvester Stallone has just confirmed via a Facebook update that Nicolas Cage has been confirmed to join the third film in the hit franchise. Given the series' tendency to play up each actor's existing on-screen action persona, it would seem highly likely that the star of Con Air and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance will be doing a lot of screaming and overacting. On the other hand, Stallone describes the actor as a "master actor who gives a veneer intellectual group" (?), which is a little hard to translate but perhaps implies that Stallone is pushing the more serious, The Rock version of the actor's action resume.

Quoth the Stallone:

"We are preparing the film with the same passion and commitment as the previous two. We have confirmed Nicolas Cage, a master actor who gives a veneer intellectual group. Hopefully we can realize to Harrison Ford, Wesley Snipes and Mickey Rourke. That is the great mission of the producer. We will continue with the same narrative scheme, the agility and the frenzy, which are inherent to the saga. What will definitely be the last? I can not guarantee. In principle it would be two deliveries, but the affection of the people encouraged us to work on a third. I guess as long as we amused ourselves by offering fun and people, we can continue playing 'The Expendables'. For now we are not as expendable as it should and as some critics want."

It's kind of an off-handed jibe at the critics there at the end. We were split on The Expendables 2 at CraveOnline, with Fred Topel loving the film's audacity and I myself finding it a little slapdash and sexist, but still largely entertaining. But I think we can both agree that we'd like to see another one, if only to discover which other action luminaries can be talked into joining the all-star production. Stallone mentions that they're still trying for Harrison Ford and Wesley Snipes, and that they'd like Mickey Rourke to return as well, but last we heard, Clint Eastwood was being sought to join the team as well. With no mention of Eastwood in Stallone's update, perhaps we should give up that particular hope.

CraveOnline will be back with more Expendables 3 news after the snake dies.